Twitter is rather like a sharp sword: It can be used for good or evil, to great effect or none at all, depending on whose hands are on the hilt, and how they’re feeling at any given moment. In the Age of 2018, tweets don’t just make national policy—they move markets.
Elon Musk is the exceptional CEO who proves the rule. The Tesla bossman has long been a Big Time Tweeter, using the platform to announce product updates, trumpet accomplishments, attack critics, share LOLs over Rick and Morty, and trigger the occasional stock price spasm. The latest in the latter category came yesterday, when Musk revisited his claim that Vernon Unsworth, a British spelunker who assisted in the rescue of a group of Thai boys trapped in a cave, is a pedophile. When another user brought up the claim—for which Musk never offered any evidence, and subsequently apologized—Musk tweeted, “You don’t think it’s strange he hasn’t sued me?”
In fact, Unsworth is preparing a libel suit. In an August 6 letter addressed to Musk, Unsworth’s attorney, L. Lin Wood, wrote, “you published through three different tweets to your twenty-two million followers that Mr. Unsworth engages in the sexual exploitation of Thai children, and you did so at a time when he was working to save the lives of twelve Thai children.” Wood says he is working to finalize the complaint and will likely sue in federal court in Los Angeles, where SpaceX is based. When multiple outlets reported the letter this morning, Tesla’s stock price headed south.
To put this tweet n’tumble in context, we combed through months of Musk’s Twitter activity and Tesla’s tumultuous stock price, highlighting the moments where the market’s evaluation of the company’s worth rose or fell based on the CEO’s posts. You can find more details for each moment below the chart.
April 1: As Tesla struggles to ramp up Model 3 production and blows deadlines, Musk issues an April Fools’ tweet declaring his automaker “bankwupt.”
May 14: After a Tesla in Autopilot mode hit a stopped firetruck (the second such crash in 2018, to be followed by a third this month), Musk defended the sorta-self-driving system and criticized the media for covering it.
June 12: Looking to cut costs and move toward profitability, Musk announces a reorganization of Tesla, including firing 9 percent of its workforce, sending the stock up.
July 15: Musk calls Vernon Unsworth, the British diver who helped rescue a group of Thai boys trapped in a cave, “pedo guy.” He subsequently apologized (and deleted the tweet).
August 7: Musk announces he’s considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share, and that he has “funding secured.” Tesla’s price shoots north, but Musk’s revelation that maybe that funding wasn’t exactly secured prompts several shareholder lawsuits and a reported SEC investigation.
August 24: Tesla announces that actually, it will remain a public company.
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